☀️ Good Morning:
If the coming months are going to look anything like this past weekend at Citi Field, it’s going to be a fun summer.
I’ve talked about A Year to Remember wins. This season is starting to look like the club featured in A Year to Remember.
In front of a packed house, the Mets swept four games from the Cardinals for the first time since April 1986. Dating back to last season, they have won eight straight against their former arch rivals, tied for the organization’s longest such streak since 1986. Even their 9–1 home record matches the ‘86 powerhouse as the second best start at home in franchise history (2015, they started 10–0).
The MLB standings are beginning to look like the NBA standings with a bunch of powerhouses with dominant records at home looming over a collection of bottom dwellers.
It sets up a showdown with the Phillies, beginning on Monday night. The Amazins will try to build on an early two-game lead in the division and prove they are going to be a problem for NL East competitors.
🗣️ “They obviously don’t like the way things ended last year and I’m sure they’d like to make a statement right away -- it’s a big series, I expect it to be high energy,” Brandon Nimmo said of facing the Phillies. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
◼️ Mr. Gets the Job Done
When Francisco Lindor arrived in New York with the nickname, Mr. Smile, the fit was obvious: take one of the most infectious personalities in the game and plaster his face on billboards hanging over Broadway.
Four+ seasons later, the smile is still there, but the demeanor is a bit different. Mr. Smile has matured into Mr. Cool, AKA Mr. Gets the Job Done. It doesn’t matter whether he’s mired in a slump, or if the team has fallen on good times or bad times, the attitude is the same, the response is the same.
We witnessed the perfect embodiment of this persona on Friday during one of the most thrilling regular-season home victories in a long time. A tie game, ninth inning, a Fuhgeddaboudit swing.
Lindor left the smiles for the fans as he trotting around the bases, workmanlike. Don’t mind the fact this was his first walk-off home run as a Met, or that it was his 250th career home run, the first player to reach that feat in such exhilarating fashion. His job was to come through in the clutch, and he did.
Lindor’s walk-off blast was one of seven hits over the four-game set against the Cards. He continued his lead-off mastery with a homer to spark the offense on Sunday. He has also warmed up at short after a brutal start, making the everyday plays and the spectacular ones.
“This is a player that doesn’t take plays off,” Carlos Mendoza said of his shortstop on Sunday. “It takes a lot physically, mentally to be able to do it day in and day out. That's not easy to do.”
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